In Chapter 3 I outlined an idea that I extracted from the work of Kenneth Craik: namely, that the mind builds idealised models of the world and uses these models for prediction. In the last two chapters I elaborated on this proposal. In Chapter 4 I argued that models in general—from simple maps to complex … Continue reading Chapter 6. Generative Models and the Predictive Mind

In the previous post I outlined some of the chief characteristics of model-based representation. I argued that models should be understood as idealised structural surrogates for target domains. In this short post I’ll explain how this functional profile can be understood in the context of the neural mechanisms that underlie our psychological capacities. This chapter … Continue reading Chapter 5: Could the Mind be a Modelling Engine?

In the previous chapter I outlined Kenneth Craik’s suggestion that we should understand mental representation in terms of models in the brain, where, for Craik, a model is a kind of representation that capitalizes on relational similarity to its target. In this short post, I’m going to briefly elaborate on how I think the concept … Continue reading Chapter 4. Models as Idealised Structural Surrogates

In this post I’m going to outline the contents of my third chapter. This chapter is partially based on a paper I have in Philosophical Explorations. I now think that this paper is mistaken in some important respects, however. This thesis chapter does a much better job on this topic. Chapter Aim The main aim … Continue reading Chapter 3: Kenneth Craik’s “Hypothesis on the Nature of Thought”

In this blog post I’m going to briefly(ish!) outline the contents of the second chapter of my doctoral thesis. This chapter is probably the most boring of the thesis, but it lays the groundwork for some of the views that I defend in later chapters, as well as the methodological approach that I follow throughout … Continue reading Chapter 2: ‘The Representation Wars’